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On a much
larger and impressive scale was the Liverpool beer festival held in St Georges
Hall. This is a fantastic Grade 1 listed Neoclassical building that is regarded
as one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the world. Full
marks to the organisers and Liverpool Council for making it happen. I can well
believe the festival programme when it describes it as a “daunting challenge”.
The first festival in any venue is always hard and this was particularly
ambitious in nature. With around
300 beers, ciders and perries on offer, it takes a large venue to host that in
one room and still have room for the punters. Seating was arranged Germanic
bench style, so it was a case of squeeze in and get chatting to your neighbour.
One big advantage of this kind of venue is that they have the luxury of having
a separate room for the musical turns. Being the St Georges Hall, they had a
posh and acoustically sound Concert Room. Sadly for me, it wasn’t the day that
the Liverpool Ukul…

Last weekend
saw the third beer festival to be held at the Manchester Museum of Science and
Industry. The MOSI fest is an interesting one: held in the Power Hall, it gives
the visitor the chance to admire the cracking locomotives, jet engine and the
generator made in Bury. The downside is it’s a very narrow bar area with
virtually no seating, so it gets packed easily and queues can be lengthy. My
advice, if you’re planning to go next year, is get there as early as possible.

It’s often
been said that quality-or rather lack of-is the biggest problem that real ale
faces. For far too long it was common for every struggling pub or wannabe bar
to bang a handpump or two on the counter in the hope of enticing the wandering
imbiber. The problem was that often the bar personnel knew nothing of the
product and cellarmanship was lacking. Thereby leading to the old circle of
poor quality/diminishing demand. Things have improved somewhat over time. You
only have to look at London for testament to that. However, sadly,
problems do persist, whether it is in the beer range itself or just with our
old friend, quality. Often this is simply down to having too many beers on. You
would think that a professional outfit in the business of selling beer would
realise this. But apparently not. Step forward Greene King. The much-loved St
Edmunds brewery and pubco have gone down the path of many of their rivals by
offering guest beers in their pubs. Well who wants to drink their own…

Touring
round the numerous breweries of Bermondsey the other day, it was mooted that
perhaps the gentlemen of the party could do with shacking up with some local
lasses to save the drunken stagger home. An excellent idea, we thought. Perhaps
the prospective advert in the Evening Standard could read: Northern
gentleman seeks lady for companionship. Age and looks unimportant but must live
close to Kernel, Partisan and Brew by Numbers.

Monday saw an unusual variation of meet the
brewer at Port Street Beer House. Yes, the Roosters lads were there and there
was beer to be sampled. But it was all the same beer. Well, kind of. The story
behind Project R is that Roosters were approached by hop merchants Charles
Faram and offered the chance to brew with some experimental hops. Looking round
you may be forgiven for thinking that New World hops are the be-all and end-all
of the hop industry. However, there is a lot of work going on to develop new
strains of European and English hops and shorten the time it takes to bring
them to market.

This is
where Project R comes in. All the beers on offer were 4% and grounded with
Golden Promise malt and Magnum hops with the experimental hops-four from Slovenia
and two from England-added two minutes before the end of the boil. We had
CF117, CF118, CF119 and...can you guess? That’s right: 121. The two English
hops were labelled CF128 and CF130. It’s impossible to make any meaningful
comp…

So the new
Good Beer Guide is out. That’s your drinking for 2014 sorted, right? Last week’s launch was somewhat overshadowed
by a spat with the editors of the Good Pub Guide over the future of the
traditional boozer. It was something of a no-contest as CAMRA came over all
positive and supportive, while the GPG came over all elitist with a rather
hackneyed view of the situation. Not good for a publication supposedly
extolling the virtues of the British pub. Of course the GPG is elitist and any
credibility it may have aspired to went by the wayside when it started charging
for entries.

But what
about the GBG? Well as I sit here perusing it whilst supping my rather tired
pint of Windermere Pale, a few points struck me. Yes, as usual, it does contain
articles about beer and pubs and the 4500 pubs chosen by CAMRA members. It’s
somewhat economic with the truth on that issue as it mentions the National Beer
Scoring System as if that is the universal standard in the selection process.
When, in…

Time to gear
up for the weekend with something special. An IPA seems the likely candidate.
But no ordinary IPA, obviously. Weird Beard are yet another of the seemingly
endless supply of London brewers keen to make their mark on the craft scene.
Results so far have been very promising and this one boded well. Described as a
“mixed up IPA”, it blends English malt with American yeast and Target and
Aurora hops. The hop kick is given a boost with the addition of dry-hopping. It’s a 588ml
bottle and comes in at 5.8%. It was very lively and poured cloudy amber with a
large off-white head. The aroma was an appealing mix of marmalade, light toffee
and a healthy dose of fruity hop notes. Surprisingly this didn’t continue into
the beer itself. Instead you are presented with a clean, crisp bitter-rather
than fruity-bite that intensifies as it washes over your palate. The American
yeast is there to hold back the esters and it works well in that role as the
strength is barely noticeable. Tyson says:…

Eagle-eyed curry aficionados in Bury have picked up on
the fact that Indian Zest on Bell Lane has quietly renamed itself “Ash’s”. Coincidentally
very similar to “Asha” on Tottington Road. Why a not very well-respected
takeaway would try to confuse itself with Bury’s premier Indian restaurant, I
leave to your imagination.

But to avoid
any confusion; Ash’s advertises “High Class Authentic Cuisine” but it is Asha
that actually sells it.

Ah Oompah
bands, waitresses in dirndls, the sound of clinking steins. But hold on, this
isn’t Munich, this is Manchester. The Printworks to be precise. Yes, this is
the new Bierkeller that has opened in Manchester’s forgotten “entertainment
centre”. It promises a lot in its advertising including, most intriguingly for
this beerhound, the “largest world beer selection anywhere”. Suitably
impressed, I entered its modest frontage. The first
thing you notice-apart from having two bouncers, I mean door staff, on in the
afternoon-is its size. The ground level bar is deceptively small, but once you
go downstairs you realise that the place is enormous. Basically it’s a complex
of three completely separate bars. Shooters: the sports bar with pool tables
etc. The Bierkeller and the Rest of the World bar. All accompanied by gigantic
screens to showcase sport. If sports your thing, you’re always guaranteed a
good view in here. But what
about the beer, I hear you ask? Well, dare I say that the adver…